Brad Penny was once again Good Enough, but the Tigers were unable to do any damage against Cy Bumgarner, and after a brief bit of excitement when they sent The Beard to Zambrano-land, the rug was pulled out from under on a bang-bang game ending double play. It was exciting enough that Aubrey Huff had tears in his eyes after the victory, although that could have also been because the Giants took a pass on a really delicious ham sandwich to keep him on the roster, or from relief that he changed his mind at the last second about strolling to the water cooler as Brian Wilson was coming off the field.
On the bright side, Casper Wells made Sportcenter’s Play of the Day when he thwarted interfering fans and threw a perfect strike to a plate-blockingly perfect Avila. You don’t run on The Ghost! Good stuff.
Pablo Sandoval is about the only guy hitting for the Giants, and yet that was somehow enough. And also we somehow threw him a strike on a 0-2 count with 2 out, because…well, just because.
At any rate, 2 more games, and the interleague horror show is over.
Tonight the Tigers give the ball to Home Boy Max Scherzer. Home Boy because he is 5-1 with a 3.13 ERA at Comerica. Barry “The Contract” Zito flings it for the Gigantes, in only his 2nd start since April.
Today’s Player of the Pre-Game: Jhonny Peralta
Zito is pretty much the definition of what you would call a “finesse” pitcher. If you look at the BBRef pitcher type splits, Peralta just jumps off the page with a .360 / 1.045 OPS vs finesse pitchers. As opposed to, say, Inge (.182 / .473). In fact Inge and Ordonez are a combined 7-for-49 (.143) vs Zito.
Today’s Raburn is SO Due Lineup:
- Austin Jackson CF
- Casper Wells RF
- Magglio Ordonez DH
- Miguel Cabrera 1B
- Victor Martinez C
- Jhonny Peralta SS
- Brennan Boesch LF
- Ryan Raburn 2B
- Brandon Inge 3B